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Study sheds light on how T. Rex used its teeth

This T. Rex can be found in Drumheller, Alta., beside the tourism office. Scientists are getting a better grip on how the big dinosaur used its teeth.

Photograph by: John Chalmers
, Journal reader photo

A University of Alberta researcher's detailed analysis of Tyrannosaurus Rex's "killer smile" means science is now better able to distinguish which teeth the ancient beast used to crush, rip, slice or impale its prey.

U of A paleontologist Miriam Reichel used sophisticated digital imaging techniques and examined a variety of tyrannosaurid dental fossils in a study that illustrates how measurements of tooth angles — in addition to size, shape and other characteristics — can give experts a "powerful tool" in understanding dinosaur physiology and interpreting their feeding behaviour.

Among other findings, Reichel was able to refine paleontology's grasp on the specific functions of particular teeth based on their edges and placement angles within the mouths of the giant animals, which roamed much of Western Canada before their extinction more than 65 million years ago.

Reichel "has discovered that beyond the obvious difference in size of each tooth family, there is considerable variation in the serrated edges of the teeth," stated a summary of the study. "These varying edges or keels not only enabled T. Rex's very strong teeth to cut through flesh and bone, the placement and angle of the teeth also directed food into its mouth."

Teeth rooted in different parts of a tyrannosaur's jaw are described in the study — published in the latest issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences — as being dedicated to tasks such as hunting, killing, "defleshing" and "puncture cutting."

"There are still blanks to fill in tyrannosaurid tooth data," Reichel writes in the published paper, but "this technique shows great potential" for future research.